Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act of 1973

Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act of 1973
Long title	An original bill to extend and amend the Agricultural Act of 1970 for the purpose of assuring consumers of plentiful supplies of food and fiber at reasonable prices.
Nicknames	1973 U.S. Farm Bill; Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act;
Enacted by	the 93rd United States Congress
Effective	August 10, 1973
Citations
Public law	93–86
Statutes at Large	87 Stat. 221
Legislative history
	Introduced in the Senate as S. 1888 by Herman Talmadge (D–GA) on May 23, 1973; Committee consideration by Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; Passed the Senate on June 8, 1973 (78–9); Passed the House of Representatives on July 19, 1973 (226–182) with amendment; Senate agreed to House of Representatives amendment on July 31, 1973 (85–7) with further amendment; House of Representatives agreed to Senate amendment on August 3, 1973 (252–151, with further amendment; Senate agreed on August 3, 1973); Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on August 10, 1973;

The Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act of 1973 (P.L. 93-86, also known as the 1973 U.S. Farm Bill) was the 4-year farm bill that adopted target prices and deficiency payments as a tool that would support farm income but reduce forfeitures to the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) of surplus stocks. (Target prices were eliminated by the 1996 farm bill (P.L. 104-127), but restored by the 2002 farm bill (P.L. 101-171, Sec. 1104).) It reduced payment limitations to $20,000 (from $55,000 set in 1970) for all program crops. The Act might be considered the first omnibus farm bill because it went beyond simply authorizing farm commodity programs. It authorized disaster payments and disaster reserve inventories; created the Rural Environmental Conservation Program; amended the Food Stamp Act of 1964 (P.L. 88-525), authorized the use of commodities for feeding low income mothers and young children (the origin of the Commodity Supplemental Food Program; and amended the Rural Development Act of 1972 (P.L. 92-419).

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